Thursday, December 28, 2006

Rory Fitzpatrick Falling on Hard Times

The momentum picked up by the Vote for Rory campaign in the recent weeks has stalled as evil Nicklas Lidstrom has leapfrogged Rory into 2nd place in the All-Star voting race for Western Conference defenseman.

Doesn't it seem a little fishy that Rory Fitzpatrick(Like a glove) is suddenly in 3rd place? Are Wings fans smartly stuffing the on-line ballot boxes or is the NHL manipulating numbers?

C'mon, we know this process isn't transparent. How do we know that some NHL.com employee hasn't just fiddled around with the numbers or programmed his own voting bot? Hmm?

1) Its totaly obvious that Bettman has decided that the Rory all star thing needed to be stopped.2) How difficult would it be to simply 'ignore' votes? Not like there's gonna be an indepandant auditor come in if Rory Fitzpatrick is denied a spot on the all star team3) It would simply be too much of a black eye, so the 'fix is in', and as he falls, they hope fewer and fewer will notice/vote for him anymore.

Ever think that there were quite a few hockey fans who don't like the idea, for whatever reason? I think it stinks. Rory Fitzpatrick now is a joke, to his colleagues and to the League's fans, despite whatever rationale was devised to justify this campaigin.

If the NHL All Star game meant something other than a corporate schmooze fest for the suits, and a joke of a game for the players( any bets on who is on the plane home before the puck drops for the third period this year?)then perhaps the Vote for Rory thing might be worth getting worked up about. It gives the NHL publicty and gives true fans a way to stick it to the puffed up and pompous who seem to run the game, Bettman and Don Cherry spring to mind.

The All-Star game is a farce. Being brighter than the media (who refuse to point out that the Emperor has no clothes) clever fans decided to vote in an obvious non-star. It could have been anybody. The grassroots effort has brought attention to the fact that real hockey fans (or at least those over the age of 11) hate the all-star game. Even if it were a real hockey game, the wrong players are voted in by idiot hometown fans (or kids). The humorless morons in the media prove once again that there is no point too obvious when they defend the All-Star game like it's some sort of sacred event between unassailable All-Star selections, when in reality it's an embarassment to hockey, played by disinterested millionaires. Worse, it puts a 3-day hole in the regular schedule that leaves me with no roti hockey results to obsess over and further compresses the other 82 games, leading to needless wear&tear on players. I challenge just one member of the MSM to stand up and say: "The fans are saying the all-star game is a joke. Their point is that we should execute the all-star game." But they won't, because without the all-star game and the stupid voting process and weekly updates there would be nothing for the media to bloviate over when they've run out of completely fabricated trade rumours to discuss as though they're real news.